Friday, 30 November 2012

Here we are again! December Blog Advent Month. A concept designed by my friend Loria few years ago. In fact i searched back through my blog to find Lori's original idea. Here it is: "Post every day in the month of December until Christmas one special idea you can do as a family, a couple or a group of friends. Of if you're really clever, post a wee thought each day about Christmas or something." Im doing it, for the third year. Feel free to join in! Let me know so i can follow your posts though! I can already say that im pretty sure i wont get to blog everyday but i will do my activity. I had great intentions of making our list less commercialised this year, get back to the true meaning of Christmas and all that jazz, but December has crept up on me again and im just not organised and im empty of ideas....i did throw in a few (day 12/day 19/day 23) Day 1 - hang up chocolate advent calendar and find the wooden advent calendar from the boxes in the garage!Day 2 - Go to the Jingle Bell Fun Run (mummy's work) and walk 1K in Christmas clothes!Day 3 - Message from Santa videoDay 4 - Elf ourselvesDay 5 - Have a special day with Grandpa and Grandma before they go back to CanadaDay 6 - Write and post a letter to Santa Day 7 - Christmas nativity concert at nurseryDay 8 - Go to Isla's birthday partyDay 9 - Get the Christmas trees up and start decoratingDay 10 - Continue decorating!Day 11 - Make paper snowflakes for bedroom windowsDay 12 - Do something for charityDay 13 - Christmas whole school showDay 14 - Make salt dough ornamentsDay 15 - Go up to Hamleys in Glasgow with friends for a special Santa brunchDay 16 - Paint salt dough ornamentsDay 17 - Go to Kinder Gym Christmas partyDay 18 - Make paperchainsDay 19 - Read the nativity storyDay 20 - Nursery Christmas party and Funworld Christmas party at night with friends!Day 21 - Have a Christmas picnicDay 22 - Do an activity from our Usborne Christmas bookDay 23 - Sing Christmas carols and learn about baby JesusDay 24 - Have family round for Christmas Eve dinner, remember to put out milk and cookies for Santa and a carrot for RudolphTonight we went down to the school in our village to see the lights get switched on, hear the choir sing carols and see Santa...... and its not even December yet!

Sunday, 25 November 2012

Im quite proud that i've been organised enough to start early on my Christmas stitching! Ive finished Caleb's ornament this week. Of course i now have to stitch the back (i always like to stitch a message) and then make it into an ornament, so there's still a bit of work left to do but hey, the front is complete anyway! I stitch an ornament every year for the boys. Here's 2009, 2010, 2011

Thursday, 1 November 2012

Galoshans. There's a good ole Scottish word for ye. It means 'guising' or trick or treating to use the now popular Americanism. Galoshans is a pretty local term, this part of Inverclyde is one of the few places in Scotland that still uses it apparently. In Scotland, it's tradition not just to go round houses collecting sweets but you have to 'perform' as well. I like that part. Where i grew up in England, trick or treating for teenagers in particular was literally 'give us a treat or we'll throw an egg at your house,' for little ones it was just going round sweet grabbing. In Scotland, kids are expected to tell a joke or sing a song. Its fun.

Did i just say FUN? For those that know me, i am NOT a fan of Halloween, it is not an occasion that sits comfortably with me. We're Christians, we go to church and im not comfortable with the evil, sinister side of Halloween. As well as that, i just dont get it! What is it celebrating? What's the point of it? Our country never used to be into it this much! On top of all that, i quite simply don't like the colour orange :)

However, i have kids now and there is no avoiding Halloween. Calebs school is decorated, they've been hearing stories about witches and such like for the past week and had a party yesterday. I was against 'celebrating' Halloween in anyway until i seen the pure joy in Calebs face at the thought of dressing up, going out with his friends in the dark and getting sweets lol On Tuesday he even told me he felt sad we had no Halloween decorations up. So....all of a sudden i became Halloween-ised (and yes, i know that's not a word).

We carved our pumpkin (i would have done this anyway, even before kids Matthew and i had a pumpkin each)

and look at the mummy who 'hates' Halloween. Yeah, that big smile clearly shows how much i hate it lol

Caleb had a blast, came home with bags and bags of sweets and went to bed exhausted. We live in a great neighbourhood for this. The street was buzzing last night with at least 30 wee kiddies out and about with their parents. It was lovely actually. Even the houses without kids welcomed them in, had turned their living rooms into proper displays and enjoyed playing host.

Now if Halloween's good for nothing else at least we can say it forged friendships and deepened the community spirit of the neighbourhood. So its not all bad!